SPACE
James Webb Space Telescope snaps deepest space image ever
GLOBAL EYE Showcasing the incredible world we live in
WORDS BEN TURNER
Webb has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date
The first full-colour image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been unveiled by NASA and President Joe Biden and is the deepest and most detailed image of the universe ever captured. Named Webb’s First Deep Field, the spectacular and mindbending photo shows our universe only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, just as galaxies began to form and light started flickering from the very first stars. This starlight has taken roughly 13.5 billion years – or most of the age of the universe – to travel to us, arriving at the James Webb Space Telescope after the space-time warping gravitational pull of the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 steered even the fainter and more distant light into focus.